I agree with you 100%! I have the same issues in middle school. I have talked to the counselor about bringing back credits in middle schools. I think that could help motivate students to participate. Not sure that will happen though. For the past few years we have had changes in our grading policies for PE. We started at 10 points per day, now 5 points per day. We were told by our Dean of physical education a few years ago that we can't take points off for not dressing. We have to assign a detention for not dressing. WE implemented this and it has helped somewhat. We still have students who refuse to come, or after talking to parents we have to move the detention time. We have also had to change the way we have done things due to our principal overriding the Dean of PE. So we will see what the new year brings.

For my younger students, I have them read a Sport's Illustrated Kids magazine. When they are done they have to write a reflection on an article that interested them. It has worked out pretty well, although I don't have a lot of students who sit out of class.